War (Games) are Hell and so are the Ads

An anonymous reader writes "As the clock ticks down for ShellShock: Nam' 67 we find out that the press releases are as controversial as the game. RedassedBaboon quotes several of the email press releases that seem to brag about the joys of killing and fun of having sex with a base camp mama san. My favorite obnoxious and mostly non-sensical email quote: 'You'll always remember your first kill. And in ShellShock: Nam'67 you'll definitely get more than just one.' The article goes on to point out how this behind the screens publicity push runs contrary to the public face of the game - which is supposed to depict the real horrors of war. The article ends with this thought: 'I can't imagine Coppola or Stone sending out exhuberent messages to the national press about how fun it was going to be to catch a wave off the coast of Vietnam in Apocalypse Now or how sexy Platoon's mama sans are. Before the gaming industry can be taken seriously by the world, it has to be taken seriously by itself.' How very true."

Comments

Re:Scary

[merdark]

You do realize that the US is not the only 'good guy' in wars like WW2? In fact, the US only jumped into WW2 near the end. There are plenty of other 'winners' for WW1 and WW2.

Also, the US never 'won' Vietnam. They pulled out. This is partly why Vietnam was seen as one of the worst wars the US ever involved itself in. But I guess revisionist history now paints Vientam as a stunning display of US power.

You are a perfect example of the ill effects of war games.

Re:Think of the children!

[dougmc]

Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children?

Apparantly somebody is. I'd never heard of a `mama san', so I googled for it. Apparantly it refers to a woman who works as a hostess at a bar, but it seems to also mean a geisha or a prostitute.

In Japanese, adding -san to the end of a name is a sign of respect, but in this case, `mama san' is not a nice thing to call somebody. Though I'm not sure why Japanese terms would end up being used for the Vietnam war -- totally differerent countries, different cultures. Though perhaps it's just American stereotypes -- `Japanese, Vietnamese -- what's the difference?'. Dunno.

Looking at some of the war pictures, the mama sans did cleaning and such for the soldiers, and some had sex with them too. And from some of the pictures, the girls were often as young as 13 or 14.

Assuming I'm correct in what I found, somebody certainly was thinking of the children.

Re:Scary

[david duncan scott]

Near the end?

The beginning of WWII is generally cited as the invasion of Poland in September of 1939. The absolute latest date for US entry (a date that would ignore Lend / Lease and US participation in the Battle of the Atlantic, a grave diservice to the crew of, among others, Reuben James, never mind the quasi-official status of the Flying Tigers) would be December 7, 1941. Since the war ended in August of 1945, it spanned 77 months, and Pearl Harbor was attacked in the 27th month since Poland (arithmetic in my head, but it's about right.) Hardly "near the end".

You remind me of the excellent Beyond the Fringe routine, Aftermyth of War, which ends with something like. "...and then the Americans came in and spoiled everything..."

As for Viet Nam, my favorite comment was the old T-shirt that read something like, "South East Asian War Games, 1958-1972: Second Place"